As is well known and understood, mail deliveries in an urban environment are primarily safe and secure. Where apartment buildings are concerned, a bank of mail boxes is generally provided in a lobby area, with the postman gaining access to all the boxes by means of an opening of a single, master door, and with the individual users having their own keys for the accessing of their respective, assigned mail boxes. In office buildings, similar such lock-box arrangements are many times provided--but, by and large, the mail delivery is usually made directly to the concerned office itself, either by the postman actually entering the office, or by delivering the mail through a slot in the office door, or under it. For residential mail delivery, furthermore, delivery is made usually directly at the front door, itself--again, either by placing the mail delivery underneath the front door, or by depositing it in a box adjacent to the entranceway into the house. As will be readily apparent, each of these deliveries is made at a point which is generally the most closest to the intended, final destination.
With suburban and rural mail deliveries, on the other hand, the situation is quite different. While with an office complex, or apartment complex, the mail-delivery situation would be quite analogous to that in an urban environment, the mail box placement is quite different for residential delivery, with the mail box typically being located at the side of the road along which the postman travels in his motor vehicle. As will well be understood, the types of mail boxes almost always employed are of a single-door construction, as approved by the United Stated Postal Service, so that access to the box is just as convenient for an unauthorized intruder as it is for the postman making delivery or for the homeowner retrieving his, or her, delivered mail. With the mail box location at the side of the road often being forty, seventy or even hundreds of feet from the front door of the residence--depending upon front yard setback--the problem of unauthorized entry becomes more severe, as the unauthorized entry is not easily detected as it is happening, and because the location at the roadside makes easy the rapid departure by the unauthorized intruder.